Home Defence and the Sandys Defence White Paper, 1957

Abstract

Long understood as the key document in Britain's Cold War history, the Duncan Sandys Defence White Paper of 1957 nevertheless has a largely forgotten context: home defence. This article argues that understanding this context allows important new conclusions to be drawn concerning the drafting, presentation and the reception of the document and the deterrent strategy it expounded. It argues that the Paper failed to establish a new doctrine for civil defence which reconciled the policy with the wider deterrent strategy. In doing this, the Paper presented a muddled policy to the public: one which failed to justify the reductions in civil defence provision but which stressed the destructive power of thermonuclear weapons. This had the effect of encouraging the critics of the government's nuclear strategy to flag up the absence of adequate civil defence measures and highlight the ‘admission’ that there was no defence against the hydrogen bomb.

Key Words:

• Nuclear Weapons
• Deterrence
• Civil Defence
• Home Defence
• Sandys
• Defence Policy
• Conscription

Acknowledgements

I would like to acknowledge the aid of the Arts and Humanities Research Council for funding the research on which this article is based and the assistance of Dr Tracey Loughran for reading an earlier version of this paper.

Notes

¹Ministry of Defence, Defence: Outline of Future Policy, Cmnd. 124 (London: HMSO 1957), 7.

²P. Hennessy, Having it So Good: Britain in the Fifties (London: Penguin 2006), 465.

³M.S. Navias, ‘Terminating Conscription? The British National Service Controversy, 1955–56’, Journal of Contemporary History 24/2 (1989), 195–208; M. Carver, Tightrope Walking: British Defence Policy since 1945 (London: Hutchinson 1992), 41–59.

⁴C. Brooker, The Neophiliacs (London: Collins 1969), 117; see also R. Weight, Patriots: National Identity in Britain, 1940–2000 (London: Pan 2003).

⁵Ministry of Defence, Statement on Defence, 1955, Cmd. 9391 (London: HMSO 1955), 4.

⁶M.S. Navias, Nuclear Weapons and British Strategic Planning, 1955–58, (Oxford: Clarendon 1991); S. J. Ball, ‘Harold Macmillan and the Politics of Defence: the Market for Strategic Ideas during the Sandys Era Revisited’, Twentieth Century British History 6/1 (1995), 78–100.

⁷Ministry of Defence, Defence: Outline of Future Policy, 2.

⁸T. O'Brien, Civil Defence (London: HMSO 1955).

⁹M. Grant, ‘Civil Defence Policy in Cold War Britain, 1945–68’, unpublished PhD thesis, Queen Mary, Univ. of London, 2006.

¹⁰N[ational] A[rchives, Kew, United Kingdom], CAB 134/82, CDC(48)16, ‘Preparations for Civil Defence’, Report to the Defence Committee, 19 Aug. 1948.

¹¹Grant, ‘Civil Defence Policy’.

¹²NA, CAB 134/938, HDC(53)7, ‘The Initial Phase of a War’, Report by the Home Defence Committee Working Party, 24 July 1953.

¹³For example see NA, CAB 130/101, GEN 461/1st Meeting, 12 March 1954; P. Hennessy, The Secret State: Whitehall and the Cold War (London: Penguin, 2003), 50.

¹⁴NA, CAB 134/940, HDC(55)3, ‘The Defence Implications of Fallout from a Hydrogen Bomb’, Report by a Group of Officials, 8 March 1955; for background, see J. Hughes, ‘The Strath Report: Britain Confronts the H-Bomb, 1954–5’, History and Technology 19/3 (2003), 257–75.

¹⁵Grant, ‘Civil Defence Policy’.

¹⁶NA, HO 322/136, letter from the Town Clerk, Coventry, to the Home Secretary, 7 April 1954.

¹⁷‘A Bomb and a Town’, Daily Mail, 8 April 1954.

¹⁸NA, HO 322/136, ‘Civil Defence: City of Coventry’, Order by David Maxwell Fyfe, 24 July 1954.

¹⁹NA, PREM 11/607, Churchill to Maxwell Fyfe, 15 July 1954.

²⁰NA, CAB 134/1245, HD(M)(56)1, ‘Defence Expenditure by Civil Departments’, Memorandum by the Chairman of the Home Defence (Ministerial) Committee, 3 Jan. 1956.

²¹NA, CAB 21/4350, ‘Central War Plans Secretariat’, Note from Strath to Chilvers, 13 May 1955.

²²NA, CAB 134/1245, HD(M)(56)1, ‘Defence Expenditure by Civil Departments’.

²³Ibid., HD(M)(55)10, ‘Shelter Policy’, Note by the Home Secretary, 25 Oct. 1955.

²⁴NA, AIR 8/1836, ‘Brief for Under Secretary of State for Air and the Chief of the Air Staff on Shelter Policy’, 6 Dec. 1955.

²⁵Ibid. See also the thoughts of Gen. Brownjohn, NA, CAB 134/1245, HD(M)(55) 2nd Meeting, 27 Oct. 1955.

²⁶Grant, ‘Civil Defence Policy’.

²⁹NA, CAB 134/1315, PR(56)3, ‘The Future of the United Kingdom in World Affairs’.

²⁷The ‘master document’ of this review was NA, CAB 134/1315, PR(56)3, ‘The Future of the United Kingdom in World Affairs’, 1 June 1956.

²⁸K. Ruane and J. Ellison, ‘Managing the Americans: Anthony Eden, Harold Macmillan and the Pursuit of “Power-by-Proxy” in the 1950s’, Contemporary British History 18/3 (2004), 147–67 is a notable exception.

³⁰Ibid.

³¹Sir Richard Powell in ‘The Move towards the Sandys White Paper of 1957’, seminar held July 1988, Institute of Contemporary History, 2002, <www.icbh.ac.uk/icbh/witness/sandys/>, accessed 2 Sept. 2008, 29.

³²P. Catterall (ed.), The Macmillan Diaries (London: Pan 2004), 564, diary entry for 9 June 1956.

³³NA, CAB 134/1315, PR(56) 1st Meeting, 6 June 1956.

³⁴See NA, PREM 11/4111, Sewlyn Lloyd to the Prime Minister, 28 July 1955.

³⁵NA, CAB 134/1315, PR(56)8, ‘Home Defence Policy Review’, Memorandum by the Minister of Defence, 7 June 1956.

³⁶NA, CAB 21/3346. Prime Minister to Minister of Defence, 3 July 1956.

³⁷NA, CAB 134/1476, CD(57)5, ‘Terms of Reference and Composition’, 19 Nov. 1957.

³⁸NA, CAB 134/1315, PR(56)8, ‘Home Defence Policy Review’.

³⁹Ibid. PR(56) 3rd Meeting, 9.6.1956.

⁴⁰Ibid.

⁴¹NA, CAB 134/1315, PR(56)8, ‘Home Defence Policy Review’.

⁴²Ibid. PR(56) 3rd Meeting, 9 June 1956.

⁴³NA, CAB 134/1245, HD(M)(56)2, ‘Home Defence Policy’, Memorandum by the Minister of Defence, 18 June 1956.

⁴⁴Ibid. HD(M)(56)3, ‘Home Defence Policy’, Memorandum by the Home Secretary, 18 June 1956.

⁴⁵Ibid.

⁴⁶Ibid. HD(M)(56) 2nd Meeting, 20 June 1956.

⁴⁷Ibid.

⁴⁸NA, CAB 134/1246, HDC(56)3, ‘Defence Expenditure by Civil Departments’, Note by the Chairman, 22 June 1956; Ibid. HDC(56) 1st Meeting, 25 June 1956.

⁴⁹Ibid. HDC(56)3, ‘Defence Expenditure by Civil Departments’.

⁵⁰Ibid. HDC(56) 1st Meeting, 25 June 1956.

⁵¹Ibid.

⁵²NA, CAB 134/1245, HD(M)(56)4, ‘Defence Expenditure by Civil Departments’, Report by the Home Defence Committee, 29 June 1956.

⁵³Ibid.

⁵⁴NA, CAB 134/1315, PR(56)19, ‘Home Defence’, Memorandum by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, 12 July 1956.

⁵⁵Ibid.

⁵⁶NA, CAB 21/3508, ‘Prime Minister's Brief on PR(56)19, Home Defence’, Note by Sir Norman Brook, 13 July 1956.

⁵⁷Ibid.

⁵⁸NA, CAB 134/1315, PR(56) 6th Meeting, 13 July 1956.

⁵⁹Ibid.

⁶⁰Ibid.

⁶¹NA, CAB 134/1207, C(O)D(56)23 (Final), ‘Defence Expenditure by Civil Departments, 1957/58-1959/60’, Report by the Official Committee on Civil Defence, 30 Oct. 1956.

⁶²NA, CAB 129/84, CP(57)5, ‘Defence Expenditure by Civil Departments’, Note by the Secretary of the Cabinet, 4 Jan. 1957.

⁶³Ibid.

⁶⁴NA, CAB 129/84, CP(57)7, ‘Home Defence’, Memorandum by the Secretary of State for the Home Department, 7 Jan. 1957.

⁶⁵Ibid.

⁶⁶NA, CAB 129/86, C(57)69, ‘Statement on Defence, 1957’, 15 March 1957.

⁶⁷Ibid.

⁶⁸NA, CAB 128/31, CC(57) 21st Conclusions, 18 March 2007.

⁶⁹NA, CAB 129/86, C(57)79, ‘Statement on Defence, 1957’, 26 March 1957.

⁷⁰Ministry of Defence, Defence: Outline of Future Policy, 2.

⁷¹A. Horne, Macmillan: 1957–1986 (London: Macmillan 1989), 48.

⁷²Hennessy, Having it so Good, 468.

⁷³‘Comment: 80 Days’, Daily Mail, 5 April 1957.

⁷⁴‘Britain pins faith to missiles’, Manchester Guardian, 5 April 1957.

⁷⁵‘New model’, Manchester Guardian, 5 April 1957.

⁷⁶NA, HO 322/135, Town Clerk, Metropolitan Borough of Saint Pancras to the Under Secretary of State, Home Office, 11 April 1957.

⁷⁷NA, PREM 11/4155, Butler to Sandys, 15 April 1957.

⁷⁸Ibid., Butler to Macmillan, 10 Dec. 1957.

⁷⁹House of Commons, Parliamentary Debates, Vol.568, cols.1760–5.

⁸⁰NA, PREM 11/4155, Butler to Sandys, 15 April 1957.

⁸¹NA, HO 322/135, F.A. Newsam to the Town Clerk, St Pancras Borough Council, 27 May 1957.

⁸²‘St Pancras may drop civil defence’, Daily Telegraph, 16 April 1957; ‘Row brews on civil defence’, News Chronicle, 16 April 1957.

⁸³See L.S. Wittner, Resisting the Bomb: A History of the World Nuclear Disarmament Movement, 1954–70 (Stanford UP 1997), 45; P. Byrne, The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (New York: Croom Helm 1988), 43; R. Taylor, Against the Bomb: The British Peace Movement, 1958–1965 (Oxford: Clarendon Press 1988), 19n.

⁸⁴‘Unilateral ban on nuclear weapons rejected’, The Times, 4 Oct. 1957.

⁸⁵A.J.P. Taylor, The Deterrent Myth (London: CND 1958), 1.

⁸⁶M. Veldman, Fantasy, the Bomb, and the Greening of Britain: Romantic Protest, 1945–80 (Cambridge: CUP 1994), 202.

⁸⁷Taylor, Against the Bomb, 43.

⁸⁸For the government's limited attempt to answer the disarmers' criticisms and promote civil defence see Grant, ‘Civil Defence Policy’.

⁸⁹Ministry of Defence, Statement of Defence, 1956, Cmd. 9691 (London: HMSO 1956), 26.

⁹⁰NA, AIR 2/14564, S.C. Widdows to Vice Chief of the Air Staff, 14 Sept. 1956.

⁹¹See D. Wood, Attack Warning Red: The Royal Observer Corps and the Defence of Britain, 1925–75 (London: Macdonald & Jane's 1976), 225.

⁹²Ministry of Defence, Statement of Defence, 1956, 26.

⁹³NA, AIR 2/14592, F.W. Verry to D. McKean, 15 Oct. 1959.

⁹⁴Home Office, Radioactive Fall-Out: Provisional Scheme of Public Control (London: HMSO 1959).

⁹⁵NA, CAB 131/19, D(58) 18th Meeting, 10 Sept. 1958.

⁹⁶Ibid.

⁹⁷NA, CAB 134/2039, HDR(60) 4th Meeting (confidential annex), 2 May 1960.